The Victoria Film Festival‘s online guide goes live today at midnight, and the launch party had the who’s who of cinema aficionados from this city in attendance to get the first sneak peek. The printed version will see distribution in the coming days at this operation’s offices and at kiosks around town.
Announced is this year’s opening gala film, My Internship in Canada. This political satire features Irdens Exantus as a Haitian intern navigating his way through Canadian politics and sports in his attempt to understand this country. The film stars Patrick Huard as Steve Guibord, an independent Member of Parliament who has the powers in his hands to decide if Canada will go to war with the Middle East. Just which way this film will go will depend on the point of view writer/director Philippe Falardeau is focussing on. When this film has been earmarked by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as one of Canada’s Top 10 Best Canadian Films of 2015, it’s a safe bet this movie is very reverent today because of the issues it touches upon.
In addition to documentaries which provides social insight and enough foodie inspired movies for me to savour (like Sergio Herman: F*cking Perfect and The Sandwich Nazi), the picks of this year’s films playing at the Victoria Film Festival of 2016 range from animated fun, historically significant, musically mysterious to the terrifying!
McDull: Me & My Mum
(麥兜˙我和我媽媽)
Feb 7 * 1:00pm * Odeon 2
Cantonese with English subtitles
Whenever the police encounter a difficult case, they will call on him to help to solve it; The FBI, Scotland Yard, all hire him as a consultant. He is Detective Mak, Bobby Mak, the private detective who is known to be the most famous detective since Sherlock Holmes.
Bobby Mak used to be the kid who is called McDull. McDull is a slow kid, but his mum is shrewd. She transforms a 300-square foot apartment into a 2 bedroom, with dining and living room, sauna, gym and library. From a 100-square feet shop, she manages a real estate agency, tuck shop, plumping service, beauty salon and second hand mobile phone shop, plus a private detective agency. (no joke, private detective!) She can use rice, salted fish, and cabbage to cook Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, French, or even a buffet. She can use a wire hanger to fix the toilet, remote-control toy plane, ceiling lamp and umbrella …. — Twitchfilm.com
To hear those sleigh bells jingling, going ring ting tingling will certainly hail the start of the holiday, but just how often do you hear a boo during this season? Some of us love a good monster movie to enjoy on that cold winter’s night. To wait for that final ray of light to fade away is enough to signal it’s time to get some fright on!